120. Testament of Youth

""

By Vera Brittain
Rated 5+
From Library
Recommended by Connie on Bookflurries

This is one of the most profoundly moving books I have ever read.

"When war broke out in August 1914, 21-year-old Vera Brittai was planning on enrolling at Somerville College, Oxford. Her father told her she wouldn't be able to go: "In a few months' time we should probably all find ourselves in the Workhouse!" he opined. Brittain had hoped to escape the Northern provinces, but the war seemingly dashed her plans. "It is not, perhaps, so very surprising that the War at first seemed to me an infuriating personal interruption rather than a world-wide catastrophe."

"Her father eventually relented, however, and she was allowed to attend. By the end of her first year, she had fallen in love with a young soldier and resolved to become active in the war effort by volunteering as a nurse--turning her back on what she called her "provincial young-ladyhood." Brittain suffered through 12-hour days by reminding herself that nothing she endured was worse than what her fiancé, Roland, experienced in the trenches. Roland was expected home on leave for Christmas 1915; on December 26, Brittain received news that he had been killed at the front. Ten months later Brittain herself was sent to Malta and then to France to serve in the hospitals nearer the front, where she witnessed firsthand the horrors of battle. When peace finally came, Brittain had also lost her brother Edward and two close friends. As she walked the streets of London on November 11, 1918--Armistice Day--she felt alone in the crowds:"

"For the first time I realised, with all that full realisation meant, how completely everything that had hitherto made up my life had vanished with Edward and Roland, with Victor and Geoffrey. The War was over; a new age was beginning; but the dead were dead and would never return."

First published in 1933, Testament of Youth established Brittain as one of the best-loved authors of her time. Her crisp, clear prose and searing honesty make this unsentimental memoir of a generation scarred by war a classic."

121. Cutting for Stone

Rated 5 Stars
From Library

This is a book that has surprised me. I checked it out from the library on a whim and It;s probably going to be my best book of this year for me.  I stayed way late to finish it and am darn near cross eyed.

Publisher Summary

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others

119. Hugh and Bess

By Susan Higgenbotham
Rated 2.5
From:  Libarary


I  thought this was a very dull book.   It's a medeavil romance and if I hadn't been such a fast read I would not have finished it.  The author never came up with a decent plot.  Lots of atmosphere though.  Like a hamburger with lettuce, tomato and onion but no beef patty.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Forced to marry Hugh le Despenser, the son and grandson of disgraced traitors, Bess de Montacute, just 13 years old, is appalled at his less-than-desirable past. Meanwhile, Hugh must give up the woman he really loves in order to marry the reluctant Bess. Far apart in age and haunted by the past, can Hugh and Bess somehow make their marriage work?Just as walls break down and love begins to grow, the merciless plague endangers all whom the couple holds dear, threatening the life and love they have built.

118. Her Fearful Symmetry

By Audrey Niffenegger

Rated 3.5

From:  Library

I finally finished this book and am going to rate it about 3.5 stars.  It got way too crazy at the end.  Shaun however loved it but she is way more into the paranormal than I am. {sigh}

PUBLISHERS DESCRIPTION:

a haunting tale about the complications of love, identity, and sibling rivalry. The novel opens with the death of Elspeth Noblin, who bequeaths her London flat and its contents to the twin daughters of her estranged twin sister back in Chicago. These 20-year-old dilettantes, Julie and Valentina, move to London, eager to try on a new experience like one of their obsessively matched outfits. Historic Highgate Cemetery, which borders Elspeth's home, serves as an inspired setting as the twins become entwined in the lives of their neighbors: Elspeth's former lover, Robert; Martin, an agoraphobic crossword-puzzle creator; and the ethereal Elspeth herself, struggling to adjust to the afterlife. 

117. Billy Boyle

By:  James R. Benn
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library

This is a mystery series that is right up my alley.  I will be reading more of these books.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:

Billy Boyle is the youngest member of the Boyle clan in the Boston Police Department. A tightly knit Irish family, their fierce loyalties extend little beyond each other, Ireland, and the police force where Billy’s father and uncles also serve. The year is 1941, and they have paved the way for Billy’s promotion to Detective through the time-honored traditions of politics and patronage. Then World War II breaks out. The family’s political connections secure Billy a commission and post with a distant relative of Mrs. Boyle’s, a general serving with the War Plans Department in Washington D.C. where Billy is to safely sit out the war. Unfortunately for the Boyles, that unknown general is Dwight David Eisenhower, who whisks Billy off to England when he is appointed Commander of U.S. forces in Europe . This is definitely not what Billy expected, nor is really qualified for. He must rely on his native wits to keep himself alive and avoid humiliating his family as he conducts his first investigation into the death of an official of the Norwegian government in exile.
Billy Boyle tells the story of the beginning of Billy’s transformation from a self-centered wise guy interested only in his own survival, to a reluctantly heroic figure. Typically American, Billy never loses his disdain for authority or the cynicism of a city cop as he slowly grows into his role as Ike’s secret investigator. The climatic scene of the story takes place in Nordland, along the rocky coastline and the rugged mountains of this northern-most province in Norway. Nordland, the land of legends, a distant place to which a hero must journey to seek the truth, and which reveals to him his true self, changing him forever. It is here, where according to the Norse legends, ‘by a strand of corpses…heavy streams must be waded through by breakers of pledges and murderers’.

120. Evil for Evil

By:  James R. Benn
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library
Once again I am reading a series out of order but I don't think order is all that important in mysteries where the stories stand pretty much alone.  I will definitely be reading more of these books.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:

Billy Boyle is sent to Northern Ireland, at the request of the British government, to investigate links between the Irish Republican Army and the Germans.  Automatic weapons have been stolen from a U.S. Army base, and an IRA man has been found dead, shot in the head and left with a pound note in his hand; the mark of the informer.  Billy is forced to confront not only danger from German agents, IRA killers and Unionist thugs, but also his own family history, which reaches back generations to the starvation days of the Irish Potato Blight.  

120. Rizzo's War

 By:  Lou Manfredo
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

I liked this book more than I thought I was going to.  I was expecting a typical cops and robbers story and that is what this was, only better written than most.  It also had a good back story that helped give the characters more interest than usual.


Publisher Summary

Rizzo’s War, Lou Manfredo’s stunningly authentic debut, partners a rookie detective with a seasoned veteran on his way to retirement in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

“There’s no wrong, there’s no right, there just is.” This is the refrain of Joe Rizzo, a decades-long veteran of the NYPD, as he passes on the knowledge of his years of experience to his ambitious new partner, Mike McQueen, over a year of riding together as detectives in the Sixty-second Precinct in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. McQueen is fresh from the beat in Manhattan, and Bensonhurst might as well be China for how different it is. They work on several cases, some big, some small, but the lesson is always the same. Whether it’s a simple robbery or an attempted assault, Rizzo’s saying always seems to bear out.

When the two detectives are given the delicate task of finding and returning the runaway daughter of a city councilman, who may or may not be more interested in something his daughter has taken with her than in her safety, the situation is much more complex. By the end of Rizzo and McQueen’s year together, however, McQueen is not surprised to discover that even in those more complicated cases, Rizzo is still right—there’s no wrong, there’s no right, there just is.

Rizzo’s War is an introduction to a wonderful new voice in crime fiction in the Big Apple, ringing with authenticity, full of personality, and taut with the suspense of real, everyday life in the big city. 

119. The Scarlet Pimpernel

By: Emmuska Orczy
Rated: 4 Stars
From: Library, Unabaridged Audio Book

Years ago the 1934 movie version of this book was on TV and I fell in love with both the story and the British actor Leslie Howard who did such a marvelous job of playing the Scarlet Pimpernel/ Sir Percy Blakeney as he seeks to help French aristocrats escape the guillotine during the French Revolution.

The style and writing is badly dated but the story is an excellent game of cat and mouse. Margaurite comes across as a stupid twit in the book but fares much better in the more modern movie versions where the character benefits from some badly needed updating.  Sir Percey however is wonderful as originally written.

The plot of the book is that , Blakeney adopts a masked identity as the Scarlet Pimpernel to remain anonymous as  he slips in and out of France to rescue people from their fate on the Guillotine. 

He's backed up by a league of 19 men who avow they are joining TSP in his endeavors for the thrill of the gamble, the sheer blood rushing ride of it all- that and the fact they are thumbing their nose at the French, which to British (and some of us Americans as well) is always fun!

The French, of course, detest this interference in their affairs and set out to trap and kill the Pimpernel at all costs. As part of his effort to deflect suspicion from himself, he plays the fool in every day life and he does it well. His own wife considers him a useless fop... and that's where the story really gets interesting.

His wife the expatriate Marguerite St. Just, now Lady Blakeney and the head of society in England is blackmailed by the evil Chauvelin, a revolutionary whohow has sworn to capture the Scarlett Pimpernell.  Margaurite puts him on the trail of the Pimpernel only to discover afterwards the identity of the Pimpernel herself.  Margaurite takes off to try to find her husband herself and warn him that his identity is known.

Will Chauvelin and the French Revolutionary Government find and kill the Pimpernel before she can find and save him?

118. If I Stay

By:  Gayle Foreman
Rated 5 Stars
From:  Library

This is a truly beautiful book.  It is so very well written that it really tears at your heart when you read it.  My son asked me why I would read a book if it made me cry but my daughter in law just patted me on the arm.  When I told her what it was about she teared up but said she didn't think she could read it.  Too big a wuss.  It is sad.  But so beautiful.  Oh, I already said that didn't I? {sigh}

Publisher Summary
In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen year- old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she fi nds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...
A sophisticated, layered, and heart achingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make — and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

116. Crashing Through

By:  Robert Kurson

Rated:  4.5

From:  Library

Recommended by Connie

I ordered this book after Connie listed it on Bookflurries and just finished.  It was very very interesting.  Not only was the guy inspirational but I found the details about how seeing is so much more complex than just using ones eyes.  Thank you so much for pointing me at this book.


PUBLISHER SUMMARY:
In his critically acclaimed bestseller Shadow Divers, Robert Kurson explored the depths of history, friendship, and compulsion. Now Kurson returns with another thrilling adventure–the stunning true story of one man’s heroic odyssey from blindness into sight.

Mike May spent his life crashing through. Blinded at age three, he defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision.

Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery could restore May’s vision. It would allow him to drive, to read, to see his children’s faces. He began to contemplate an astonishing new world: Would music still sound the same? Would sex be different? Would he recognize himself in the mirror? Would his marriage survive? Would he still be Mike May?

The procedure was filled with risks, some of them deadly, others beyond May’s wildest dreams. Even if the surgery worked, history was against him. Fewer than twenty cases were known worldwide in which a person gained vision after a lifetime of blindness. Each of those people suffered desperate consequences we can scarcely imagine.

There were countless reasons for May to pass on vision. He could think of only a single reason to go forward. Whatever his decision, he knew it would change his life.

Beautifully written and thrillingly told, Crashing Through is a journey of suspense, daring, romance, and insight into the mysteries of vision and the brain. Robert Kurson gives us a fascinating account of one man’s choice to explore what it means to see–and to truly live.

115. Wings of Fire

BY:  Charles Todd
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library

I am reading this series all out of order but I don't think it makes the slightest bit of difference since there is no back story running through any of them.  Each one is pretty much a total stand alone.  I love this series.  It is so well done and the period is probably my favorite one to read about in all of history.


PUBLISHERS DESCRIPTION:
Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge is dispatched to Cornwall to investigate three deaths?seemingly a double-suicide and an accident?that have occurred within weeks in the Trevelyan family. Still recovering from shell shock sustained while serving in France during WWI, Rutledge carries in his head the challenging voice of Hamish MacLeod, a Scottish soldier about whose battlefront death Rutledge experiences profound guilt. In the village of Borcombe, Rutledge learns that one of the apparent suicides, Olivia Marlowe, wrote as O.A. Manning, a poet whose work had uncannily captured both the misery of war and the passion and beauty of love. Olivia Marlowe and her devoted half-brother Nicholas Cheney died of poisoning within hours of each other. Another half-brother, Stephen FitzHugh, the only family member opposed to selling the family estate where Olivia and Nicholas lived, fell down the stairs to his death not long after the funeral. Searching for answers about the deaths and for an understanding of the poet, Rutledge finds himself on a decades-long trail of cleverly disguised murders. Todd's cast is sometimes hard to keep straight, but readers will find it hard to resist following Rutledge on this emotionally intense quest. Memorable characters, subtle plot twists, the evocative seaside setting and descriptions of architecture, the moors and the sea fully reward the attention this novel commands.

114. Saffron Dreams

By Shaila Abdullah
Rated 3 Stars
From:  Library

My main problem with this story is that I never developed a connection with Arissa the main character.  She came across to me as a rather emotionally shallow person.  Perhaps it was the authors writing style that bothered me but I felt like the whole book was skimming the surface of her life and her feelings.

I realize Arissa had multiple problems to deal with, a handicapped child, being a widow and single mother and being a muslim in America.  But the only thing in the whole book I felt like she truly connected with was her child and that her relationship with him was almost an obsession.  I thought she used her in-laws and was glad for them when they finally walked away from her.  I dunno, this book just didn't really click for me. 

LIBRARY SUMMARY:

Pakistani-born Arissa Illahi moves to New York City to be with her husband, who had taken a job at the World Trade Center's Windows on the World restaurant to allow time for completing his novel. He perishes when the towers collapse, and Arissa nearly crumples herself as she struggles with tremendous grief, a troublesome pregnancy, and the various trials she faces as a Muslim when others ignorantly associate her with the terrorists. Abdullah excels at examining the complexity of moving on after this historical event, especially from Arissa's unique perspective as a writer and artist struggling to rear a child with special needs. But this debut novel deals with more than just survival in the aftermath of 9/11, also examining the nature of motherhood by juxtaposing Arissa's supportive mother-in-law and less than maternal mother.